Tag Archives: RR

The in basket: Ernest Behrle has an idea for how the Navy can
help compensate Kitsap County folks for whatever environmental
damage results from the new pier it wants to build at the Trident
base..

“I live out near Seabeck,” he said, “and the best way to go to
Poulsbo and other points north involves (using) Westgate
Road. There are lots of people using this route each day and
we all have to stop at the railroad crossing (which wastes fuel,
brakes and is an inconvenience) at Westgate Road. In all the
years I’ve been going that route, I don’t think I’ve ever
encountered a train.”

There are stop signs on each side of the tracks, requiring
vehicles to stop.

“I know the Navy was looking for some way to pay this area back
for the damage that will be caused by adding another pier at
Bangor,” Ernest said. “One thing they could do is to work with
the railroad to put in a drop arm to stop car traffic if a train
would actually be on the tracks. The whole purpose of the
tracks is for benefit of the sub-base and the Navy.

“Westgate is used by a lot of Navy personnel going in and out of
the Bangor gate,” he said.

The out basket: The news coverage I’ve read suggests that Kitsap
has much larger fish to fry in seeking mitigation for the pier
project, mostly of a shoreline improvement nature. Big Beef Creek
and Port Gamble are mentioned. County commissioners also are trying
to head off plans to spend the estimated $15 million in mitigation
money on the Jefferson County side of Hood Canal.

I asked county public works about chipping out enough to improve
the Westgate railroad crossing.

Doug Bear of Public Works said the money to mitigate the new
pier’s impacts isn’t available for road projects.

There has been other money available for this kind of project,
and two Central Kitsap RR crossing recently have benefited.

“The railroad crossings are managed by the Puget Sound and
Pacific Railroad Company,” said County Engineer Jon Brand, “and are
under the jurisdiction of the Washington State Utilities and
Transportation Commission. The county received a federal
Railway/Highway Crossing Program grant in 2002 for mechanical cross
arms at the Seabeck Highway and Newberry Hill crossings and worked
with the railroad for those improvements.

“There was also an application filed for Westgate but grant
funds were not secured for this location,” Jon said.

Those funds are no longer available, he said. “There is a
current round of discretionary federal grant funds available for
railroad crossing hazard mitigation, but it is limited to federally
designated high speed corridors only.”